Denver City Attorney Scott Martinez and HUD secretary Julian Castro check out their write up in The Spot in 2012. (Provided by Martinez)

When Denver City Attorney Scott Martinez had dinner Thursday night with his stunt double, former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, Martinez whipped out his phone to show him a story that featured the both of them.

As Castro addressed the Democratic National Convention in 2012, Colorado delegates remarked on how much Martinez looked like Castro, which is a bit of irony because Castro is a twin and his brother Joaquin is a congressman. Martinez jokingly replied, “I actually heard that the Colorado delegation told Julian, ‘You look just like Scott Martinez!’”

I wrote it up for The Denver Post’s political blog, The Spot, which Martinez showed to Castro, now the secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

It’s the second time in three weeks that a nationally known politician has checked out his appearance in The Spot.

Denver City Attorney Scott Martinez was in Washington, D.C., Wednesday to receive a “Latino Lawyer of the Year” award from the Hispanic National Bar Association. It’s also honoring another male attorney (in a rare double award, the group says) and a top female attorney, among other awards.

Here’s to Republican Bob Beauprez, who had fun surrounding himself with up-and-coming Democratic Latinos for a photo op Wednesday night at the annual Mizel dinner.

It began when Rick Palacio, chairman of the Colorado Democratic Party, said he wanted a selfie with Beauprez, former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party and a candidate for governor. I’ll ask, I said. Beauprez said sure, but as Palacio was with Rep. Dominick Moreno of Commerce City, we decided to take a picture of the trio.

Then Denver city attorney Scott Martinez walked up so he got in the shot. There were plenty of jokes about billing the picture as “Latinos for Beauprez,” when folks spotted Rep. Dan Pabon of Denver and urged him to get into the photograph.

“Is this ‘Latinos for or against Beauprez?'” Pabon asked in that deadpan manner of his.

The connections between the Denver city attorney’s office and high-powered law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck are expanding. Brownstein, which is two years into a three-year contract to serve as the city’s disclosure counsel on bond and financing matters, snagged City Attorney Doug Friednash in December for its government affairs team. On Friday, Mayor Michael Hancock announced that he had appointed Brownstein attorney Cristal Torres DeHerrera, a shareholder in the firm since January, as deputy city attorney.

She will be responsible for day-to-day operations of a city legal office that counts more than 100 attorneys and 100 staff members. City Attorney Scott Martinez, who succeeded Friednash, said he pursued DeHerrera nearly every day for four months. She relented, he said, taking a job with a $150,000 salary — high for a government position, but likely a pay cut from Brownstein.

“My belief is that we’re becoming the employer of choice for attorneys who want to do the most exciting and high-caliber work,” Martinez told me, and sang DeHerrera’s praises: “She’s just a rock star. She was outside counsel for the city attorney’s office, where we got to see her work for the last two years. When we had hard problems and we looked to the outside, she helped us solve them. She has a reputation around town for the ability to solve complex problems where nobody else could crack that nut. She has a lightning quick wit and a personality that commands respect.”

Civic Center Park in Denver every year gets covered in a cloud of smoke during the event. (Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post file)

Denver Parks and Recreation on Thursday gave the official go-ahead to organizers of this year’s 4/20 rally, which has grown into a two-day festival. Parks spokesman Jeff Green said the department issued a festival permit to use Civic Center in the last hour. That means parks officials have resolved any concerns remaining from a fight over whether the city should sanction public consumption of marijuana during the massive April 19-20 event, which is expected to draw tens of thousands.

Organizer Miguel Lopez and attorney Robert Corry had asked the city in February to publicly endorse the widespread pot smoking that long has occurred during the event anyway without police permission.

But officials including Mayor Michael Hancock and City Attorney Scott Martinez balked, noting that Amendment 64 did not permit the public use of cannabis, and city ordinance explicitly bars it. The resolution of the dispute included organizers’ agreement to post those rules at the festival. They also will advise attendees that pot consumption in public still is illegal, though organizers disagree with the law. Denver police say they will take the same approach as usual this year, focusing on ensuring safety rather than issuing mass-citations for public consumption.

Denver City Council on Monday approved salary increases for 11 members of Mayor Michael Hancock’s cabinet on a 11-1 vote. The no vote came from stalwart fiscal conservative Jeanne Faatz, who has said she initially thought the proposed raises of 6.7 percent for all 11 were prudent — until two were boosted to increases of more than 25 percent.

Hancock’s administration says the big bumps will make the city attorney and head city planner jobs more competitive nationally. City Attorney Scott Martinez’s salary will increase by 34 percent, to $190,000. And Brad Buchanan, executive director of Denver Community Planning and Development, will see his salary increase by 27 percent, to $170,000.

“That’s just a bit too much for me in one fell swoop,” Faatz told her colleagues Monday. Last week, she was more incisive upon the proposal’s introduction, saying: “I’m apparently the canary in the coal mine. … It appears that if I can support a salary increase, the ask must not be large enough.

“(So) the administration pulled the proposal and resubmitted it as we have it today.”

San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, left, and his twin brother, Texas state Rep. Joaquin Castro, at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte on Tuesday. Julian Castro was the first Hispanic to serve as a keynote speaker at a Democratic convention.

It turns out that Mayor Julian Castro bears a resemblance to Scott Martinez, deputy city attorney for the city of Denver and a whiz kid at upsetting Colorado Republicans during redistricting and reapportionment. Of course, Castro already has a look-alike running around out there: his twin brother, Texas state Rep. Joaquin Castro.

Asked if was hearing about his resemblance to Julian (but surprisingly not to Joaquin), Martinez jokingly replied, “I actually heard that the Colorado delegation told Julian, ‘You look just like Scott Martinez!'”

But over the years Martinez has heard that he looks like Julian Castro and has his demeanor.

Lynn Bartels thinks politics is like sports but without the big salaries and protective cups. The Washington Post's "The Fix" blog has named her one of Colorado's best political reporters and tweeters.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.